Something's Rotten In Mexico

March 02, 1995

Nearly seven decades of single-party rule gave Mexico a certain stability, but it also perverted and tainted the country's political and judicial systems.

In his six-year reign, former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari took some modest steps to advance democratic and judicial reform, but he was more interested in modernizing Mexico's economy. He made significant strides on that front, but nevertheless left behind a system in which corruption still seems to pervade nearly every aspect of Mexico's official life, from the local police to the ballot box.

In December, this rot was dumped into the lap of President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, who succeeded Salinas. Zedillo promised to open the political system, restore respect for the law and get to the bottom of several recent political assassinations. He began in an unprecedented way-by naming an opposition politician to his cabinet as attorney general.

Zedillo has had no honeymoon. His administration has been rocked by a peso crisis and roiled by continuing unrest in Chiapas. Nevertheless, the president has stuck courageously to his promise to eliminate corruption in the courts and within his own party.

This week, his laudable commitment led to the shocking arrest of his predecessor's brother in connection with one of last year's assassinations. That followed by only days two new arrests in the unsolved assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio, who was the first choice of Salinas and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to follow Salinas as president.

Raul Salinas de Gortari denies he played any role in the murder of the No. 2 man in PRI, who was gunned down last September in Mexico City, and it isn't certain how much evidence the government has against him. But taken together, the arrests suggest that corruption and political violence in Mexico may have begun, or at least been tolerated, at the highest levels of government.

Zedillo, who has stumbled badly in his first days, deserves credit for letting the investigations proceed unimpeded and holding everyone accountable before the law. But his resolve will exact a price.

Even with the U.S.-led fiscal rescue plan finally under way, Mexico's economic crisis appears to be worsening. Inflation is at 70 percent, output is plunging and unemployment is rising sharply. As a result, Zedillo is soon to reveal a new economic plan, harsher than he previously proposed.

What Mexicans and foreign investors need is confidence that Zedillo can lead Mexico out of its crisis. He's showing commendable personal daring and boldness. Unfortunately, he's also raising new questions about whether he can keep his own political party and country from coming apart.